The act cancelled. The night doesn't have to
One click broadcasts an urgent booking invite to up to 25 acts who are free that night near you — last-minute specialists first. First to accept is booked; the rest close automatically. Free with every GigXchange venue profile.
Fill the stage before the doors open
Sign up free — the rescue button is there the night you need it.
Last updated: 7 July 2026
How it works
From dropout to replacement in three steps — most of it is one click.
Point at the dead gig
Booked on GigXchange? Pick it from your calendar and everything prefills. Booked outside? Just set the date and an optional fee.
Optionally name a genre
If more acts are free than invite slots, your genre preference decides who makes the top 25 — fast, but not random.
First yes wins
Urgent booking invites go to available acts — open-to-last-minute artists first. One accepts, the rest close automatically. Done.
Same rails as any booking
The replacement lands in your bookings with the contract and protected payment attached — a proper booking, not a favour.
Everything in the rescue
Built for the worst hour of a programmer's week.
Broadcast, not phone-around
One click sends an urgent booking invite to up to 25 acts who are free that night near you — the whole circuit contacted in the time one phone call takes.
Only acts who can actually play
The pool is built from real availability calendars — nobody gets invited to a night they already have a gig or marked unavailable.
Last-minute specialists first
Artists who’ve flagged themselves open to last-minute gigs rank top of the broadcast — the acts most likely to say yes hear about it first.
Genre preference, optional
Name a genre and matching acts rise to the top of the pool when supply exceeds the cap — the rescue stays fast without going random.
One click from the dead booking
A cancelled GigXchange booking carries a Rescue-this-gig button — date, title and fee prefill, and the wizard jumps straight to broadcast.
Works for outside bookings too
Act booked off-platform and dropped out? Just set the date and optional fee — the broadcast works the same.
First to accept is booked
The moment one act accepts, every other invite closes automatically — no double-booking, nobody left hanging.
72-hour invites
Every invite expires in 72 hours — acts see a live request, and you know quickly whether the rescue landed or it’s time for plan B.
Why dropouts kill nights — and how to stop them
The economics of the empty stage, and what actually fills one at short notice.
The phone-around doesn't scale
The traditional dropout play is a frantic hour of calls and messages — one act at a time, each needing minutes you don't have, most of them already booked. A broadcast inverts it: up to 25 genuinely available acts hear about the slot simultaneously, and the question stops being "who can I reach?" and becomes "who says yes first?".
Availability data is the whole trick
What makes a 25-act broadcast useful instead of noisy is that the pool is built from real availability calendars — the same calendars that drive artists' booking widgets and confirmed bookings. Nobody's invited to a night they can't play, so every invite in the batch is a live chance.
Last-minute specialists exist — find them
Every scene has acts who thrive on short notice: the covers band with a permanent van, the solo act with three sets memorised. On GigXchange they flag themselves open to last-minute gigs, and Gig Rescue puts them at the front of every broadcast. You're not begging a wedding band to skip a rehearsal; you're reaching the people who built their act for exactly this call.
First-to-accept is a feature, not a race
Urgency dies in negotiation. A rescue invite carries the date, the fee and the venue — an act either takes it or leaves it, and the first yes closes every other invite automatically. No double-bookings, no "actually we found someone" messages, and a hard 72-hour expiry so a failed rescue fails fast enough for plan B.
The best rescue is the one you never run
Rooms that program through GigXchange dodge most dropouts before they happen: bookings carry contracts with deposit terms, which is precisely the paperwork that makes acts show up. Pair the rescue button with Post a Gig for planned programming and the rate calculator for pricing, and the empty-Tuesday problem starts looking solved. More on the venue side: GigXchange for venues.
Built by GIGXCHANGE
The UK’s peer-to-peer live music marketplace. Browse artists, venues and live events, or sign up free to message and book direct.
Get booked direct
No commission — 5% only for protected payments, vs the 15–35% agencies take. Contracts, deposits and Stripe payouts in 3 steps.
Learn moreBook without gatekeepers
Post a gig in under 2 minutes, see responses within 24 hours, confirm with a deposit. No agency between you and the act.
Learn moreRun a roster from one dashboard
Manage 100+ artists, tender to venues across 40 UK cities, sign contracts on behalf. Keep your commission, lose the paperwork.
Learn moreBuild the lineup, run the night
Create events, source talent and venues in one place, sign every booking on a digital contract. From idea to ticketed event in days.
Learn moreMore free tools
Gig Rescue is one of 17 tools that come with a free profile.
UK Gig Rate Calculator
Live market percentiles for every band size, city and event type — built on the GigXchange Index. Updated nightly.
Tour Poster
Your gig list becomes a tour poster in 1 click — 4 styles, 3 formats, ticket QR codes and an animated video for socials.
Invoice Generator
VAT-ready invoices built from your gig bookings — auto-numbered, branded PDF, tracked from unpaid to paid.
Stage Plot
Drag-and-drop stage canvas, channel input list and monitor mixes — exported as an engineer-ready A4 PDF.
Flyer Builder
Striking gig flyers from 5 designed styles in 15 templates — prefilled from your booking, with a ticket QR and high-res PNG export.
Booking Manager
Your live availability embedded on your own website — visitors see free dates and book you direct. One snippet, zero upkeep.
EPK Builder
A press kit that updates itself — 18 drag-and-drop blocks, live players, verified reviews and availability at one link.
Fans & Mailing List
An audience you own — fans join from your profile, you send branded email updates with your flyers and posters attached.
AI Matches
Pick a free date, set a 60-second brief, get ranked best-fit venues — and pitch them with real booking invites.
Post a Gig
List an open slot in two minutes and take applications from gig-ready artists — full profiles and verified reviews attached.
Licensing Checker
Ten questions decode your venue’s music licensing — permission, copyright and cost, with official sources.
Compliance Checklist
Eight questions build your venue’s compliance board — law first, ten areas, every item linked to its official source.
Martyn's Law Readiness
The 2025 Act reaches every 200+ venue from ~2027 — six questions give your tier, your duties and a first-draft procedures PDF.
Events Poster
Your upcoming programme becomes a designed what’s-on poster in one click — ticket QRs, status badges, your branding.
Find an Artist
Pick the empty date, set a 60-second brief, and invite up to 5 ranked best-fit acts with real booking invites.
Booking Contract Generator
UK-compliant live music performance agreement. 8 clauses, deposits, dual e-signatures, instant PDF.
Setlist Builder
Drag-reorder songs, auto-calc set duration, design a poster-ready setlist in under a minute. Share by link or export PNG / PDF.
GX Index
The UK’s open, free rate dataset for live music. Search by city, genre and use case. Submit your own anonymous rates.
UK Musician Earnings 2026
Data-backed report on what UK musicians actually earn — the £8bn paradox, the income ladder, the 50% rule. Free, CC BY 4.0.
Frequently asked questions
Short answers to the usual queries.
Have the rescue button before you need it
Sign up free now — because the night an act drops out is not the night to be creating an account.